Not Exactly Invisible
by Dance Not Hearts
Summary: Sometimes being accident prone isn't the worst thing in the world; especially when you have someone to save you from yourself. I never thought that I needed saving, but maybe he could prove me wrong. Blaise/OC.
1. Bruised Egos can't be Healed

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter…I'm just borrowing the characters for a while. But I do own any characters you don't recognize.

**Not Exactly Invisible**  
**Chapter One: Bruised Egos can't be healed**

Hogsmeade was a beautiful place in the winter time; even with my absolute hatred of the cold weather that winter brought, I couldn't deny it. The snow delicately dusted each roof of every shop causing an eerie but romantic gingerbread-house look and just looking at my surroundings made my chest feel like it was going to melt with warmth. Leave it to me to see beauty in negative 20 degree weather.

"Lexi?" Ginny said from beside me, jerking me out of my thoughts. "Can we go inside the Three Broomsticks or something? It's freezing cold out here."

"What?" I replied. "Oh yeah sure" I said, hugging my coat closer to my body.

"You're quieter than usual today...What's going on?" she asked me as we walked down the blinding white street.

"Nothing really, I've just been thinking a lot today I guess" I responded with a shrug. Ginny knew me enough to know that when I was quiet there wasn't anything wrong; I just had nothing to say. We walked the rest of the way in silence, before arriving at the small but cozy looking pub and opening the doors.

It was warm and brightly lit inside, which was a welcome change from the swirling white cold outside.

As Ginny and I went to sit down at a table I took off my purple mittens and proceeded to shake out some of the snowflakes that had drifted into my wavier than usual hair.

"Oh Merlin Ginny, my hair is going to frizz out like a poodle" I said as we sat down, lowering my hands from my now slightly damp auburn hair.

"I'm sure it won't look that bad. Honestly it's looking more along the lines of Troll doll than poodle" she said with a smile.

"Thanks for the encouragement" I said rolling my eyes. Behind me the door of the pub opened and Ginny took in a short breath of air. I didn't need to turn around to know who had just entered the room.

"Hey Harry come sit with us" she motioned. I raised an eyebrow at her and she gave me her sweetest grin.

"Hey Ginny" Harry said sitting beside her. "And Alexa" he added quickly, looking in my direction.

"Hey" I said, although I doubt he noticed as he began animatedly chatting with Ginny. In this circumstance I had two choices: sit here and be a third wheel to Ginny and Harry or head back to the castle and spend hours alone in my room until everyone else got home from this Hogsmeade visit. As I glanced at Harry and Ginny's obvious flirting, I decided to go with the second choice.

"Well I'm going to go back to the castle, you two have fun" I announced to the pair. I barely got a wave from the duo, let alone a goodbye as I stood up and put my coat and mittens back on before departing out into the cold.

The weather had gotten worse in the past few minutes and I could barely see three feet in front of me with the terrible white out conditions. The snow crunched under my black boots as I walked as quickly as I could back in the direction of the Hogwarts castle.

The streets were virtually empty from what I could see, between the white mess in front of me and the fact that I had left my glasses in my room; I was in a bad situation for sight. Then again, even if there were a lot of people around, they wouldn't notice me; I was in my fifth year at Hogwarts and I still felt like I was invisible at the school, not that I had any problems with blending in, I quite liked being known as "that shy girl in Gryffindor" I felt like it made me kind of mysterious. Ginny was my best friend and naturally I had become pretty good friends with Ron and Hermione and Harry, but other than that I liked to keep to myself.

I must have been walking faster than I thought, because before I realized what had happened I tripped on a piece of uneven pavement and face-planted into a pile of snow on the side of the street.

"Shit" I said as I sat up and attempted to look like I had casually fallen and not completely and utterly flown face first into the snow, causing my poodle hair to become even wetter than it already was.

"Fuck" I said a little more loudly as I tried to stand up and realized that not only had I lost my dignity, but apparently I had broken my ankle as well. I grabbed onto the side of a nearby building and slowly pulled myself onto my one good ankle.

I looked around and realized that I was about halfway to Hogwarts. I was going to have to limp my way back to the castle and somehow make it to the hospital wing in this snowstorm. "Fan-fucking-tastic" I muttered to myself.

I gripped the side of the building tighter and attempted to half-walk-half-hop, but my dignity had not yet suffered enough and I slipped on a piece of black ice, landing directly on my butt. "Owww!" I cried out to the emptiness around me. I heard a chuckle a few feet in front of me and saw someone step closer to me in my best position, red faced and on my butt. I recognized the figure of Blaise Zabini from Slytherin.

"It's nice to see that someone is enjoying my pain, but it you're just going to stand there and laugh at me, then I would please appreciate it if you...er...didn't." I said.

"I'm sorry, you're just very entertaining to watch" he replied with a smirk. "I don't believe we've met before" he continued "I'm Blaise" he said extending his hand.

"Is that for me to shake, or are you going to help me up" I said, "I would really appreciate if it was the latter." He nodded at me slowly and I grabbed his hand firmly as he pulled me onto one foot. "Thanks" I said simply as I let go of his hand and steadied myself by leaning on the building.

"And you are?" he questioned me.

"Accident prone" I replied.

"I can see that, but what's your name? I don't think I've seen you around before" he said with a smirk.

"I'm Alexa" I answered. There was a moment of silence before I remembered the throbbing pain in my foot. "Um I know we just met or whatever, but would you mind helping me get back to the castle? If you don't want to then...you know that's fine too...I'll just...crawl" I rambled. I gave him a pleading look.

He heaved a sigh before scooping me up wedding style into his arms and began walking toward the castle.

"Oh um wow. I just meant helping me walk and making sure I didn't lose any more of my dignity along the way" I said, surprised at the kindness of this Slytherin. "But thank you" I added quickly. I really was grateful; if he hadn't come along Ginny would have found me hours later as a poodle-haired popsicle.

"What year are you in?" he asked me as we trudged along.

"Fifth" I said.

"You're in Gryffindor right?" he queried.

"Yeah" I began, "aren't your friends going to kill you for helping me out?"

"Maybe" he said looking down at me. "But I couldn't just leave you there; look at how much trouble you got into in the three minutes I saw you. I can't even imagine what would happen in a few hours."

I looked at him with a slightly offended, but part smiling look.

* * *

We walked (well he walked and I was carried) the rest of the way to the castle in silence and he dropped me off at a bed in the hospital wing.

"Thank you so much" I said to my hero for the day. "I owe you."

"I think you suffered enough to be honest" he replied as he turned around and began walking out of the room as I was greeted with Madame Pomfrey's voice asking me "what in the world happened to you?"

She quickly fixed the bruise on my butt and began looking at my ankle. I asked her if there was any magical cure for the bruise on my ego, but she just laughed.

"Well it looks like your ankle isn't broken which is the good news..." she said.

"Is there bad news?" I asked her with a raised eyebrow.

"Because it's not broken, only sprained, there would be no point in using any magical remedy on it as it will just cause you more pain. So the best thing we can do is to heal it the old fashion muggle way" she said as she conjured up a pair of muggle crutches. "We can wrap it up with some ice and you'll have to walk with crutches for about a week so it has the time to heal."

"I can barely walk with two feet, how am I going to walk with one?" I enquired sarcastically.

"I'm sure you'll be fine dear" she assured me. "If you would like, you can stay here overnight?"

"No that's okay, I'll figure it out. If I don't go back to my dorm my roommates will wonder where I am" I said turning down her offer.

She handed me the wooden crutches and I miraculously was able to stand up from the bed without falling over. "Thank you Madame Pomfrey" I said as I began slowly and shakily making my way out of the hospital wing and down the hall.

* * *

It was still pretty early, so the halls were relatively empty making them easy to navigate. I only saw one or two people on my slow "walk" back to the Gryffindor common room, but each of the people I had seen gave me very oddly concerned looks. I guess poodle hair and crutches aren't very becoming on me.

When I made it to the portrait hole, the Fat Lady didn't even ask questions; I guess it was apparent that I was having a bad day. Once in the empty common room I finally took off my mittens and coat and threw them on one of the plush chairs near the fireplace before sitting down in the chair myself and tying up my chaotic hair into a very messy bun.

I had a bad feeling that having to walk around on crutches for the next week might not help with my whole "blending in" thing. This was going to be a very interesting winter.

(A/N: **Reviews make my day!** so tell me what you think about this one.)


	2. Interrogation & EyeMakeup Remover

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter…if anyone was wondering.

**Chapter Two: Interrogation and Eye-Makeup Remover**

I sat in peace for a few minutes in front of the fireplace awaiting the inevitable "oh my God" that would surely come out of Ginny's mouth. I could hear voices outside of the portrait hole and as soon as the door opened I braced myself for the attack of questions that I knew was coming. I was not disappointed in either aspect…

* * *

"Oh my God! Lexi, what the hell happened?! You're alone for ninety minutes and you somehow manage to break your leg?!" yelled Ginny as she rushed over to my chair with Harry, Hermione, and Ron following closely behind.

"It's actually sprained…Madame Pomfrey said that the easiest way to heal it would be to rest it for a week. How was the rest of Hogsmeade?" I said, eagerly trying to change the subject. I really did not want everyone in the Gryffindor dorms to hear Ginny yelling about how much of a klutz I was.

"It was great…" said Harry with a slow blush creeping onto his cheeks.

"Don't change the subject Alexa," Ginny said sternly. "You still haven't explained how in the world you sprained your ankle."

"I was walking back to the castle and I slipped on ice…It really isn't a very epic tale and you know I did also bruise my ass bone, but no one seems to be very concerned with that," I explained, deciding to leave out the part about the help I received from Zabini.

"You should probably be a bit more cautious Lexi, you always seem to be getting yourself injured lately" Hermione lectured.

Because clearly "being more cautious to avoid injury" had never crossed my mind before.

"Shut up Ron" Hermione snapped as she hit him on the side of the head. Ron was trying to suppressing laughter at the expense of my pain.

"I'm sorry it's just a really funny mental picture…with the bruised butt and the frizzy hair…" he was able to say through his schoolgirl-like giggles.

"Shut up Ron" both Hermione and Ginny said as they hit him on both sides of the head.

Normally I would have had some sort of retaliation to Ron's assessment of my situation, but for once I couldn't blame him for laughing. This sort of thing could only happen to me.

"So how did you manage to get back to the castle with your foot hurt?" Harry asked amidst Ron's finally calming laughter.

Shit, I thought to myself. I had never been a good liar, how was I going to pull this one off.

"Neville helped me…" I said slowly. "He…uh…was heading back to the castle as well so he walked me back" I lied. Neville wouldn't ask questions if I told him to lie for me…I hoped.

Ginny shot me a knowing glance, I looked down at my hands and realized I was very lightly tapping my finger on my leg; Ginny knew that this was the number one sign that I was lying. I stopped tapping abruptly and jerked my head back up to look her straight in the eyes.

"Well I guess it's a good thing that _Neville_ came along then isn't it?" She said, putting extra accentuation on his name.

Oh great, now I was going to get a major interrogation. Luckily nobody else seemed to notice my lie.

"It's almost dinner guys, we should probably head down to the Great Hall" Hermione said.

"You three go ahead," Ginny said.

"Yeah, I need to get something from my dorm and Ginny can help me get down to dinner after that" I said with a half smile.

"Suit yourselves, I'm starving" Ron said heading toward the portrait.

"See you down there then" Harry said following Ron.

Hermione gave me a questionable look, but I just waved at her. I really did not need anymore people finding out about my little "rendezvous" with a Slytherin.

* * *

When the common room was safely cleared I stood up on my good leg and grabbed my crutches from beside the chair.

"So…"Ginny began, "what _really_ happened?"

"Can we actually go up to the dorm before I explain…I kind of need to change my pants…" I said pointing at the giant wet spot on my jeans; just another casualty of my issues with walking.

Ginny's mouth opened slightly in a sort of "oh I'd hate to be you right now" look. "Yeah you should change those…" she said sympathetically.

I made my way to the stairs and took a judgmental look at them, trying to decide how to go about the task.

"Please don't fall" Ginny said from behind me, slightly concerned, slightly mocking my state.

After almost 10 minutes I made it up to our room and automatically headed for my wardrobe, in search of a pair of dry jeans.

"So now that we're here" Ginny said, sitting down on the edge of the bed, "can you please enlighten me on why you felt the need to lie about how you got back to the school?"

I grabbed a pair of dark blue jeans and slowly sat myself down on the floor and leaned my crutches against the wall, to make changing slightly easier. "Can I get my pants on first?" I asked in a bitchy tone.

"Stop stalling Lexi, just spit it out!" Ginny said, getting slightly frustrated.

"Okay, just chill" I said as I pulled on my dry pants. "Just promise me you won't freak out or anything…"

"I swear on our friendship that I won't freak out. You make it sound like you killed someone or something" Ginny replied.

"Well Neville didn't help me get to the castle" I began.

"I figured that much" Ginny said under her breath.

"It was actually…Blaise Zabini who got me back to the castle…"

"Wow, that's random…" Ginny said in a surprised tone. "I would never have guessed him to be the type to help someone out, especially a Gryffindor. Maybe he has a thing for you" she winked with the last sentence.

"That would be the day…" I said rolling my eyes. "Clearly I just looked so attractive when he found me, that he couldn't help but be drawn to my presence and insist on carrying me back to the castle" I sighed sarcastically. "How romantic" I place a hand over my heart in mock romance.

"Be still Lexi's beating heart" Ginny teased.

"I'm ninety-nine percent sure he doesn't even remember my name" I said seriously. "The day that Blaise Zabini tries to romance me, will be the day that hell freezes over…And then I slip, fall and sprain my ankle on the ice," I said jokingly.

Ginny snorted with laughter. "Well let's just hope you can make it to dinner with falling anymore" she said as she got off the bed.

"Do I really have to go down there…The whole Great Hall is going to think I'm some sort of weird broken-ankle-crutch-holding freak" I said.

"Sprained ankle…only sprained" said Ginny taunting me. "But I will warn you that you should probably look in the mirror before we head downstairs…"

I gave her an odd look before grabbing my crutches and unsteadily heading to the bathroom mirror.

"Oh wow…" I said looking in the mirror. "Now I definitely know that he fell for me because of my looks" I said sardonically.

My hair had de-frizzed slightly from being in a bun, so I decided not to try and tackle that forest-like mess of tangles until after dinner. Before leaving for Hogsmeade I had rimmed my chocolate-pudding coloured eyes with some simple black mascara and brown eyeliner, but they were clearly not waterproof as the package had claimed and both the mascara and the eyeliner were now substantially smeared around my eyes; giving the ever-so-lovely morning-after-sex effect that every teenage girl wants.

I grabbed my trusty bottle of eye-makeup remover and made short work of the bad makeup job. "Alright I think we're good to go now" I said hobbling my way to my bedside table and grabbing my black-rimmed glasses and putting them on. If people were going to give me weird looks as I walked into dinner, I might as well be able to see them.

* * *

(**A/N:** Sorry this took ages to get up, I've been so busy it's not even funny and I only got to finish it today because I have laryngitis and my mom put me in quarantine from the outside world. Sorry there's not Blaise in this chapter…I promise we'll get to him; I just need to establish everything else first. Anyways…review it if you love it…or hate it…doesn't matter just **review please**. Peace.)


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